Lifestyle

Osun-Osogbo shrine worshippers shocked we did not die after touching deity — Cleric

Published

4 months ago

April 5, 2026

President, God of White Calling for All Souls Ministries, Prophet Odedoyin Ezekiel, in this interview with BOLA BAMIGBOLA, speaks on why pastors from the church embarked on the visit to the Osun-Osogbo shrine

Can you share a little about yourself and how you got into ministry?

I am Prophet Odedoyin Olawumi Ezekiel. I am an indigene of heavenly Jerusalem. I have had a divine call right from my young age. I belong to all tribes. As a full-time pastor, it’s been over 20 years since I started ministering. All these years, I have never been caught engaging in violence or a fight with anyone. My ministry is spotless.

What is the name of your ministry?

God of White Calling for All Souls Ministries. Our headquarters is in Ikotun, Lagos. We have branches all over Nigeria and abroad. Our headquarters were previously located in Modakeke. We later moved to Osogbo, and now, we are in Lagos.

Some pastors from your church in Osun State recently visited Osun-Osogbo grove, and the visit led to a disagreement. Can you tell us what actually transpired?

Recently, we organised a crusade in Osogbo, and we changed pastors who were working in our different branches. We have a new pastor posted to the Osogbo church. In the course of his work, the pastor was involved in the deliverance of people and crusades, and people kept mentioning the Osun-Osogbo grove. Because of that, the new pastor decided to visit the grove. He led other people, and they went to the grove.

At the entrance to the place, they were made to obtain a ticket. When those they met at the entrance asked them what their mission was, our pastors told them God directed them to the grove. After the security cleared them, they paid for the ticket and entered the groove. As they were going in, they saw some people there.

They proceeded. At one point, they observed a shrine. A chicken was killed, and its blood splashed on an object in the shrine. Men of the spirit are different from men in the flesh. The pastor who led them took notice of the shrine and stopped.

The pastor must have felt that the deity that could suck the blood of a chicken may also kill those people who accompanied him. He went to the shrine and prayed against any form of attack from it against those who followed him.

Immediately after concluding the prayer, he left the shrine with his people. What happened at the shrine was not the cause of the fight.

What led to it?

As they were moving towards the Osun River side, they were accosted by some women who insisted that they must pay them more money. Those women are traditionalists. But my pastors told them they won’t give money to any idol worshipper. The women insisted on collecting cash, whereas the money paid for the ticket at the entrance was transferred to an account. My pastors insisted that they didn’t have any money to pay again, having earlier paid before being allowed on the premises. Those women, however, insisted on collecting money from my pastors, and they (traditionalists) started calling people. Two buses that conveyed people who were colleagues of those women later arrived at the scene.

What then happened when others arrived?

One man later came around. They called him Farinu. He asked his men what had happened. When they were narrating what transpired, they told Farinu, who is their Oluwo, that my pastor laid hands on the Esu deity; he was shocked. He was surprised that my pastor didn’t die after laying hands on Esu. Our own power is far stronger. We don’t fear such things. For him to be surprised that my pastor didn’t die after touching their deity, it means that some people must have died through that deity in the past.

Were you present at the scene when all that happened or were you told before those pastors left for Osun-Osogbo grove?

I was not there. I have not left Lagos in over one month. I was told everything that happened by my pastors. If you check my activities through our social media handles, you will observe that I have been to many places.

I have been to the Dead Sea, where I declared all spirits there powerless. I have been to the Sea of Galilee. Those who need liberation usually invite us to come and help them.

Did you approve the trip to the Osun-Osogbo grove by your pastors?

I didn’t tell them to go there, and I was not even told before they went there. It was the spirit of God that instructed them to visit the place. They had deliverance sessions, and those whom they were praying for possessed strange spirits. That led the pastors to the grove. They did not go there to cause problems or destroy anything. We did not attack the symbol of their faith.

When Farinu intervened and allowed my pastors to leave the area, their belief was that the pastors would die when they got home. But nothing happened to them. Videos were recorded at the scene. They simply wanted to implicate us. The pastor who led others to the shrine did not release any video. I don’t know how those videos got to the Internet. After paying the government, why were the traditionalists also demanding money from the people? The government owns that place. It is a tourist site.

The argument of the traditionalists is that your people attacked the symbol of their faith by declaring that deities are powerless. What is your take?

We didn’t attack their faith. After that incident, they wrote a petition to the DSS. Despite that, those traditionalists went to the branch of my church where they slaughtered a dog and harassed the pastors they met in church. Some monarchs are working with them. One Oyewole joined those who went to our church. He covered his face when they stormed our church, but he made a video earlier that revealed his identity.

What happened on the day some traditionalists visited your church in apparent retaliation to what your men did at the Osun Osogbo grove?

A monarch had announced that he sealed our church. Only the government has that power, and before the government can do that, it will listen to all sides involved in the disagreement. The day they went to the church, they used lots of charms on our pastors, but it did not work. They destroyed chairs. They went there with a hot drink and drank it there, but my people did not react.

When the incident happened, the DSS invited our pastors, and from the headquarters here, we went there with our lawyers. When we got there, the DSS said those people had taken the law into their own hands by going to the church.

When the Olojudo visited the church, the pastor in charge was not around; he was in Akure for ministration and when he got the message, he called the monarch to say that he was not around but would show up once he came back. He also sent the monarch’s number to the headquarters, and we called him, but he did not pick up his calls. The monarch took sides with the traditionalists.

What do you intend to do regarding the sealing of your church?

For me, they did not seal the church because the monarch does not possess the power to shut the church.

The Osun State Government held a meeting with all those involved in the disagreement and CAN representatives were also present. After the meeting, the CAN chairman said he had invited you to a meeting. Do you plan to appear before him?

We are not under the Christian Association of Nigeria, and we are not Christians. We belong to White Calling Religion.

What are the differences between the two?

There are several differences between Christians and us. First, we serve the God who created heaven and earth. The God that created Christians, Muslims and other people. We believe in Jesus Christ as one of the messengers of God. That God is stainless. He doesn’t allow sin. In this ministry, we abhor sins. In our own religion, we are calling people to holiness. Jesus and other messengers belong to that holy God. I have been to Jerusalem, and there I displayed the power of God.

In your own religion, do you use or believe in the Bible?

We have our own holy book, but we have not launched it. It is different from the Bible. We call it the Book of Words. The Bible that Christians carry is just a fraction of words. Our own book is called Book of Words.

When CAN wrote to us, the association said we should come immediately. We felt the letter was not properly written. They can’t just call us and direct us to report immediately. The leadership of CAN can’t just order us to come over. Also, our name is not on the CAN list. There is freedom of association. Their approach to the issues is very wrong.

The Osun State Police Command said a petition has been written against you. What is the way out of this situation?

We have absolute trust in the police. We believe in the leadership of President Bola Tinubu. The police command has called for a meeting, and we will be there. We are not fighting anybody, and we are for peace. Nigeria is our country, and we believe in the country. Regarding the monarch who shut our church, we will meet him and resolve the matter amicably. Our religion preaches peace.

In some of the videos you shared online, you were captured visiting rivers to cast out spirits and shrines. Don’t you feel your activities can expose traditional religion worshippers to ridicule?

I don’t see it that way. In the last video I posted that has gone viral, it was the monarch of that town who invited me, and when I got there, I prayed, and God ministered to me that there was a deity in the town that was hindering its progress. I delivered the message, and the monarch took me to the place. I removed it. We did not intrude. They permitted us to go there. I went to the Dead Sea and declared the spirit there powerless. People are inviting us. We don’t go anywhere without being called to come.

With what has happened after the visit to Osun-Osogbo grove, do you plan to visit more shrines and traditional region sites?

If anyone calls me tomorrow to say that a deity is disturbing them and I should come, I will go there. The visit to Osun-Osogbo grove was embarked upon after divine instruction was received concerning it. We have a church in Epe and some Oro adherents said we can’t open it because they wanted to observe their Oro festival. We rejected the idea and engaged them. We deliberately did not bring the matter online.

punch.ng

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Lifestyle

Catholic bishops’ inconvenient truth

Published

4 hours ago

August 10, 2026

Newsbreak365_Admin

Politics and religion often conflate into a toxic brew. So, it is with the storm over John Onaiyekan’s comments after the recent meeting between President Bola Tinubu and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria. As the waves billow and swell, the encounter opens a window into the tremors in government rather than the cardinal’s intentions.

Instead of treating the bishops’ observations as sincere moral feedback from a respected institution, some of the administration’s vocal defenders responded with personal attacks, accusing the cardinal of partisanship and abuse of clerical privilege.

That reaction was unfortunate and avoidable.

No elected government claiming democratic credentials should treat independent criticism as hostility.

Yet the ferocious responses from the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike; the President’s Special Adviser on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala; and the SSA on Media, Temitope Ajayi, suggested Onaiyekan had committed a grave offence by saying the bishops told the President Nigeria was “bleeding,” that poverty was worsening, and many were struggling under economic reforms.

The cardinal’s fault was not fabricating facts but speaking publicly about an uncomfortable conversation.

He said the President disagreed, insisting the economy was improving and reforms were laying the foundation for recovery.

The bishops, he said, neither expected agreement nor sought to embarrass the President; they were discharging a moral duty to tell him what many Nigerians could not.

That should have ended the matter. Instead, critics turned a healthy exchange into a public quarrel. Bwala questioned the cardinal’s neutrality, alleging the church supported Peter Obi in 2023.

Ajayi dismissed the bishops as offering only one perspective. Wike argued that having taken sides in a past election disqualified the cardinal from impartiality and faulted the bishops for questioning INEC’s neutrality ahead of 2027 without stronger proof.

These points merit consideration. Religious leaders, like journalists and civil society actors, should aim for fairness as credibility rests on intellectual honesty. Achievements by government should be acknowledged. But fairness works both ways.

The administration’s defenders owe Nigerians an honest engagement with the bishops’ substance rather than attempts to discredit the messengers.

Who the cardinal voted for is irrelevant to whether millions of Nigerians are suffering. Hunger and inflation do not check party membership before striking families.

One of the weakest responses to public criticism is to attack motives while avoiding the issues raised. That strategy failed to convince many Nigerians. Therefore, it is no surprise that support for Onaiyekan flowed from across civic space.

The Northern Youth Council said he reflected lived realities; the Middle Belt Forum called the attacks unfair; the Catholic Laity Council defended the church’s pastoral duty to speak for the vulnerable.

Former governor and minister Rotimi Amaechi, himself a Catholic, reminded the Presidency that bishops have every right to criticise governments and urged responses based on evidence, not indignation.

Even Orji Kalu, APC senator and former Abia State governor, threatened to resign from the party if the bishops were insulted, noting their similar interventions across Africa.

The public backlash appears to have prompted moderation. Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, reaffirmed the administration’s respect for the Catholic Church and promised deeper consultations.

That is the mature response expected of a confident government, and it should have been the first instinct.

The episode exposes a deeper problem.

With the 2027 elections on the horizon, there is a growing tendency in official circles to interpret every criticism through a partisan lens.

Independent institutions that refuse to sing from the government’s hymn book risk being branded hostile. Such defensiveness serves neither democracy nor good governance.

Onaiyekan’s sharper point was that too many people around the President paint an overly rosy picture of the country. Whether entirely fair, the observation highlights a real danger that administrations insulated by courtiers and loyalists risk mistaking praise for patriotism.

Presidents need more than briefings, official statistics and flattering presentations. They need uncomfortable truths from independent voices including economists, labour unions, journalists, business leaders, traditional rulers and religious organisations.

Governments that refuse to listen lose touch with the people they govern. That is why criticism is not the enemy of reform; silence is.

The Tinubu administration can rightly argue it inherited an economy in deep distress and that difficult choices were necessary. Removing the petrol subsidy and liberalising the foreign exchange market were politically costly but, many economists agree, economically inevitable.

The government has expanded fiscal space for states, created NELFUND, launched youth initiatives, and helped end the destructive cycle of prolonged ASUU strikes. These are notable achievements and deserve acknowledgement.

But governments are judged by citizens’ lived realities, not only by economic theory or improving macro indicators.

Foreign reserves have strengthened to $52 billion from about $3 billion, fiscal revenues rose to all-time highs, and the naira exchange rate has stabilised compared with the immediate post-reform shock.

Yet these gains have not delivered meaningful relief for the average Nigerian. Inflation remains punishing at over 15 per cent and above 37 per cent in at least 10 states; food and transport costs are soaring; healthcare and medication are costly; electricity tariffs and rent have escalated; small businesses struggle with high energy costs and expensive credit.

For too many families, over 70 per cent of income is spent on feeding alone. Multidimensional poverty affects 63 per cent of Nigerians, per the World Bank.

The bishops sought to communicate that reality. It cannot be dismissed by citing encouraging macro trends.

The reforms are also incomplete. A parallel foreign-exchange market persists, reflecting distortions and weak confidence.

Oil production remains below projections. Domestic refiners complain of inadequate crude supply even as the government extends Project Gazelle with a new $4.5 billion refinancing, raising concerns about future crude commitments while local refining capacity is planned to double.

External debt keeps rising, increasing exchange-rate exposure and debt-service obligations, which already consume half of revenues.

Terrorism, banditry and kidnapping continue to terrorise large swathes of the country, driving farmers from fertile lands and worsening food inflation.

Official and independent reports indicate that more than 628,000 people have been killed and over 2.2 million abducted since 2023, according to a BusinessDay report in June.

These are measurable national realities, not opposition talking points. Governments need independent voices to speak honestly about them. No pushback can erase the fact that Nigeria is bleeding.

The Catholic Church has a long history of such moral witness. During military rule, bishops such as Olubunmi Okogie, an Emeritus Cardinal, condemned authoritarianism, corruption and human-rights abuses.

Under democratic governments, the church continued to criticise administrations across the political spectrum over insecurity, governance failures and human suffering. Its loyalty has been to moral principles, not to any party.

Tinubu should not regard himself as uniquely persecuted, nor should his supporters mistake clerical witness for partisan politics.

Religious leaders are, firstly, citizens. They bury terrorism victims, counsel unemployed graduates, comfort widows and feed hungry families. If such leaders cannot speak about poverty, insecurity and governance, democracy becomes a farce.

Political parties are also inconsistent. Many who now defend petrol subsidy removal opposed it when it was proposed under President Goodluck Jonathan. Those who benefited from the freedom to criticise must not deny others the same liberty when roles reverse.

One of the most perilous governance tendencies is believing that criticism weakens government. On the contrary, governments make worse mistakes when they become prisoners of official optimism.

They need independent feedback to test whether policies yield intended outcomes. Economic models and official reports are necessary but insufficient; they must be complemented by honest input from labour, business, academia, the media, civil society and faith leaders. Without it, governments risk governing statistical abstractions rather than human realities.

It is encouraging that the administration now appears to be recalibrating. Akume’s pledge of deeper engagement deserves commendation.

Consultation, not confrontation, marks mature democratic leadership. The Presidency gains nothing by quarrelling with institutions focused on the country’s welfare.

Tinubu has often said he welcomes constructive criticism. He insisted that he sought the job and should not be pitied. This episode is a chance to prove it.

Labelling respected clerics as partisan for voicing uncomfortable truths suggests the administration may lack confidence in the transformative power of its own reforms. That is diminishing.

Nigeria’s problems are too serious for official defensiveness. Reform is a journey requiring constant feedback. The bishops fulfilled their civic and moral duty. The Presidency must perform its constitutional role by listening, not by silencing dissent.

Source: punchng.com

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Lifestyle

LACK OF TRUST IN MARRIAGE

Published

18 hours ago

August 9, 2026

Oluwagbenga Olaoye

A marriage can survive difficult times, financial struggles, and disagreements—but when trust disappears, the relationship begins to lose its foundation.

When a husband no longer trusts his wife, or a wife no longer trusts her husband, even innocent actions can become suspicious. A simple phone call becomes a question. Coming home late becomes an accusation. A private conversation becomes a source of fear and jealousy.

Lack of trust creates emotional distance.

It produces constant suspicion, arguments, insecurity, resentment, and sometimes secretive behaviour. Instead of feeling safe with each other, couples begin to feel like enemies living under the same roof.

Trust is not built by controlling your spouse, checking their phone every minute, or constantly demanding explanations. Trust is built through honesty, faithfulness, transparency, consistency, and keeping your word.

If trust has been broken, don’t pretend everything is fine. Talk about it. Admit mistakes. Forgive where possible. Set healthy boundaries. And be willing to rebuild what has been damaged.

Remember: love may bring two people together, but trust helps keep them together.

💔 Don’t allow suspicion to destroy what communication and honesty can repair.

BUILD TRUST. BE FAITHFUL. BE HONEST. PROTECT YOUR MARRIAGE.

“Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour.”
— Ephesians 4:25 (KJV)

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Lifestyle

LACK OF OPENNESS IN MARRIAGE

Published

19 hours ago

August 9, 2026

Oluwagbenga Olaoye

A marriage can look beautiful on the outside and still be struggling on the inside when there is no openness between husband and wife.

When couples stop communicating honestly, keep secrets, hide their feelings, or are afraid to discuss important issues, emotional distance begins to grow. What starts as “I don’t want to cause a problem” can eventually become mistrust, resentment, loneliness, and constant misunderstanding.

Openness does not mean telling your spouse everything in a hurtful or careless way. It means creating a safe relationship where both partners can honestly talk about their feelings, concerns, mistakes, finances, expectations, struggles, and dreams without fear of unnecessary humiliation or condemnation.

A strong marriage requires:

• Honest communication — Talk about problems instead of allowing them to grow in silence.
• Trust and transparency — Avoid unnecessary secrecy that can damage confidence in the relationship.
• Active listening — Listen to understand, not simply to respond or attack.
• Emotional vulnerability — Let your spouse know when you are hurting, worried, disappointed, or afraid.
• Respect — Honesty should never become an excuse for insults, threats, or emotional abuse.
• Forgiveness — When mistakes are acknowledged, work together toward healing and restoration.

The Bible says:

“Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.” — Proverbs 11:14 (KJV)

And:

“Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” — James 1:19 (KJV)

Marriage should be a place where two people can feel safe enough to communicate, honest enough to admit their weaknesses, and humble enough to work through their differences.

Don’t allow silence, secrets, and suspicion to build walls between you and your spouse. Talk. Listen. Understand. Forgive. Grow together.

❤️ Openness builds trust. Trust strengthens intimacy. And healthy communication helps build a stronger marriage.

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